Columbine Tapes To Be Made Public

Updated 12:18 PM ET April 26, 2000

By COLLEEN SLEVIN, Associated Press Writer

DENVER (AP) - The families of Columbine High School shooting victims who fought for access to video taken during the massacre are outraged that authorities also are releasing a tape to the public - with a music soundtrack.

"This shows no regard whatsoever for the feelings of the victims," said James Rouse, a lawyer for the families, after learning of the Jefferson County sheriff's department decision on Tuesday.

The videotape - a Littleton Fire Department training tape that includes 25 to 30 minutes of footage from surveillance cameras in the school cafeteria, was to be made available to the public starting this afternoon for a $25 fee. The package also includes two to three hours of news helicopter footage.

Sheriff's department spokesman Steve Davis said he could not comment on the decision to release the videotapes because it involves the families' lawsuit. A spokeswoman for the county attorney's office did not immediately return a call for comment today.

Rouse said part of the training tape is set to a pop-music soundtrack.

One of the songs, "If It Were Up To Me" by Cheryl Wheeler, includes the lines "Maybe it's the movies, maybe it's the books, Maybe it's the bullets, maybe it's the real crooks, Maybe it's the drugs, maybe it's the parents," and concludes: "Maybe it's the end, but I know one thing. If it were up to me, I'd take away the guns."

None of the surveillance camera tape shows students getting shot, Rouse said. But he said the cafeteria tape does show students scattering as the gunman detonate a bomb and begin shooting.

In addition to the cafeteria scenes, the training tape includes footage taken later in the school library, where two seniors killed 10 of their 13 victims and themselves on April 20, 1999. The bodies were removed before the later footage was made, but there was still blood on the carpet and police tape showing bodies' locations, Rouse said.

The parents are "absolutely outraged and horrified. Each one of those pools of blood is where someone's child died or was seriously wounded," Rouse said today.

He also complained about the television news footage shot from a KCNC-TV helicopter. "It does show dead and wounded kids on the ground and rescue workers pulling the dead and wounded kids by their legs," Rouse said.

The Jefferson County sheriff's office was ordered Monday to turn the tapes over to six families who wanted the footage to support their claims that officers mishandled the shootings. They did so on Tuesday.

County Attorney Frank Hutfless then surprised the families by announcing that copies of the tapes also would be made available to the public.

"We really have less than 24 hours for the victims' families to review it and get over the shock," Rouse said Tuesday.

Phyllis Velasquez, whose son Kyle was killed at Columbine, wasn't surprised by the decision to release the tape.

"This is just how it's been for the past year. This is life on a daily basis for us, waiting to see what's next," she told KUSA-TV.

Littleton Fire Department officials have shown the training tape about 50 times at presentations across the country, including an International Association of Fire Chiefs meeting in Kansas City, Kan., last May, city spokeswoman Kelli Narde told the Denver Rocky Mountain News.

"They've been everywhere," she said. "They've been from coast-to-coast and back again."

In the past year, the sheriff's office has angered Columbine families by circulating a portion of the cafeteria surveillance tape which eventually ended up on television and the Internet.

A 90-second segment was broadcast in October when it was leaked to CBS after being shown as part of a training video at a firefighters' seminar in Albuquerque, N.M.

Jefferson County Sheriff John P. Stone later called the release of the training video an embarrassment and ordered all copies returned to his office.

In December, Time magazine published a cover story based on five of the gunmen's own videotapes that the sheriff's office showed to a reporter. Stone maintained they were shown only for background purposes, which Time has denied.

-- Glimpse of a country that has gone insane (@ .), April 26, 2000

Answers

Just another attempt, IMHO, to desensitize us to violence and decadence. NUMB is the word...

Damn fleas... (SCRATCH, SCRATCH, STRATCH)

The Dog

-- The Dog (dogdesert@hotmail.com), April 26, 2000.

What does this have to do with Mr. Decker?

-- helen (home@the.farm), April 26, 2000.

<<<< passin the dog some 'Advantage'

Best for fleas......BTW, keep your ass off the couch now if you got fleas, those suckas hop 6 feet.

Stayin on couch AWAY from 'the dog'. (****grin***)

-- consumer (shh@aol.com), April 26, 2000.

For you, Helen, it's just plain Ken. To explain, this is a post from the artist formerly known as "a." Young "a" is convinced modern America is the cultural nadir of mankind. Forget human sacrifices. Forget slavery. Forget theocracy and feudalism. Forget the Crusades, the Inquistion and dark ages. Forget the great depression and two world wars. Now, now is the hour of our discontent!

I think Columbine was terrible and the production of a videotape tasteless. Without doubt, we live in a coarse and vulgar society. This is one of the inevitable problems of freedom. If you allow free speech, some people will say crass and tasteless things.

"a" and I could bicker endlessly... is the glass half empty or half full? Modern America faces seriously problems... but I'd rather be living here and now than any other time and place in history.

-- Ken Decker (kcdecker@worldnet.att.net), April 26, 2000.

No, Kenny. The argument was whether America is today more debased and violent than the last recession (70's) or depression (30's) -- which you assured us it was not.

I take it that since you are now dredging up periods of time hundreds and thousands of years ago to try and prove your point, you concede I was correct in my original assumption.

-- (@ .), April 26, 2000.

"a". Don't know how old you are but, from my experience, the 70s was the sleaziest decade. It's hard to quantify these things but my gut says the "social fabric" is healthier now than during the 70s.

-- Lars (lars@indy.net), April 26, 2000.

Yeah I guess you're right Lars. We had that scummy Jimmy Carter as President and all.

-- (@ .), April 26, 2000.

Yeah, not to mention Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew.

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), April 26, 2000.

What were the statistics on home invasions, car jackings, and zoo shootings back then Flint, do you recall?

Maybe Kenny can look it up in his Club of Rome encyclopedia.

-- (@ .), April 26, 2000.

"a,"

We can have the debate over the 70s, the 30s... pick your decade. Eventually, you're going to get tired of having your intellectual head handed to you on a platter. Here's a tip... a single news story is not socio-economic data. A single news story does not adequately describe techological advances or changes in the quality of life. A single news story does not represent a time, a place or a people. At least try to make this challenging for me.

-- Ken Decker (kcdecker@worldnet.att.net), April 26, 2000.

Violence.Fear.SWAT.Blood.Guns.Bombs.Psycho Killers. And meaningful lyrics. It's gonna sell like hotcakes...and you know it. This country is undeniably weird.

-- Gia (laureltree7@hotmail.com), April 27, 2000.

--(, you said,

We had that scummy Jimmy Carter as President and all.

I'll agree Carter was a bad President. But I most definitely do NOT believe he is a scummy man. His actions after getting out of office have shown that.

And this is posted by a Gun-toting, God-fearing, Republican,

Frank

-- Someone (ChimingIn@twocents.cam), April 27, 2000.

Frank: I was being sarcastic.

Ken: Why so defensive? All I did was post a news story. Have you got those figures?

-- (@ .), April 27, 2000.